Tag Archives: Central Illinois Railroad

General News, Kellar Branch

Looking for a used locomotive?

9 Comments

The creditors of Central Illinois Railroad‘s parent company are selling theirs.

Central Illinois Railroad just got $150,000 in taxpayer dollars in May — their price to allow the Kellar Branch rail-to-trail conversion go forward.

UPDATE: The front office of CIRY states that they’re still going to be providing shortline service in Peoria to O’Brien Steel, but were unable to answer any further legal questions. According to published reports, the company only has eight locomotives, and they all appear to be up for sale based on the above notice. So, how exactly they’ll be able to continue providing service is unclear.

Kellar Branch

Kellar Branch a step closer to trail

4 Comments

Transportation blogger David P. Jordan has the latest on the Kellar Branch saga, which is quickly drawing to a close.

In a nutshell, Pioneer Railcorp is taking the regulatory actions needed to abandon the middle portion of the Kellar Branch rail line, which will allow the city to lease the corridor to the Peoria Park District, who will convert it to a recreational trail. These regulatory actions are being taken pursuant to an agreement Pioneer made with the City of Peoria and Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) passed by the council last year.

Not yet answered is how much this will cost the taxpayers. Pioneer, CIRY, and Carver Lumber didn’t just wake up one morning and change their minds about rail service. Their interests were purchased through the agency of the enigmatic Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation, headed by Tom Leiter. Don’t think that cost, whatever it is, won’t get paid by the taxpayers. It will, mark my words. And the bill will come due after the line has been abandoned and converted — i.e., after the money has already been spent.

But, on the optimistic side, Peoria will finally be a recreational nirvana, drawing tourists from around the world to walk and bike between Toulon and Morton. All that tourism should easily get us out of debt and spur all kinds of development.

Kellar Branch

Kellar Branch will likely be abandoned after all

47 Comments

Kellar Branch RailroadOn the City Council agenda this week is an agreement — one of a “series of agreements” — that will pave the way (get it?) for a portion of the Kellar Branch to be abandoned so it can be converted to a recreational trail.

This agreement is pretty mundane. It just sets out how Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) and Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) will share trackage rights on the portion of the branch that remains, as well as the western connection to the Union Pacific line.

However, there is a mysterious, new entity that has popped up in the agreement: something called the “Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation.” According to the Secretary of State, it’s a not-for-profit organization incorporated in October 2008 by Thomas Leiter. You know Tom Leiter — that’s Alexis Khazzam’s father-in-law. Khazzam is a big recreational trail supporter. It seems this corporation has signed some sort of “Leasehold Purchase Agreement” with both CIRY and PIRY in October and November of last year.

Basically what this means is that Tom Leiter has somehow bought out CIRY and PIRY’s interest in all or part of the line. I can only presume he’s done the same with Carver Lumber, although it’s not explicitly stated in this, the first in a “series of agreements.” I wrote to city attorney Randy Ray asking for more details, but all he would say is:

I will try to get answers to all of [your questions]. For now, I will answer that the plan is to build a trail between Candletree and Park, with Carver being served from the West. This result is contingent on other things happening and is not assured by the Agreement on the agenda.

Well, we know that it’s more expensive to get rail service from the west. If that were feasible, the Kellar Branch would have been abandoned years ago. So, what’s changed? Only the creation of the mysterious “Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation” and its “Leasehold Purchase Agreements.” Sounds to me like some money has changed hands, and everyone’s willing to let the Kellar Branch be abandoned now. What they couldn’t do through lawsuits and regulators, they appear to have succeeded in doing with a little filthy lucre.

So money talks. What’s new? Well, here’s what we need to keep an eye on: who’s money? If it’s Tom Leiter’s, well, that’s his affair. But if one of these future agreements involves the Peoria Park District or the City of Peoria giving a large chunk of taxpayer money to Tom Leiter in return, that’s a different story. Somehow I just have a feeling that the taxpayers are the ones who are going to end up financing this scheme.

Ya gotta love the secrecy of Peoria politics. This has clearly been going on for more than nine months, yet this is the first time we’re hearing about it (publicly, anyway), and only because it has to be approved at an open meeting. Even then, they’re going to trickle out the agreements over time, so we can only see the full picture after it’s too late for the public to make any objections. A brilliant, albeit underhanded, plan.

Congratulations to the trail enthusiasts. It seems likely they will finally get what they’ve coveted for so long. Between this and the pending museum, Utopia is clearly just around the corner.